92 Mr. G. L. Bates on the 



The flight is easy and graceful and the birds sail far without 

 flapping. The call is a loud and rapidly repeated note, 

 which may be heard far through the forest. Another peculiar 

 call, consisting of a loud clucking note repeated more slowly, 

 is heard from a solitary bird, perhaps a sitting female when 

 off the nest. 



The u Kunduk " has a proud and graceful carriage, as it 

 arches its long neck while cautiously peering amongst the 

 leaves at the hunter. When not old and tough it is good 



10. Turacus mebiani (Ibis, 1904, p. 613). 



The " Mba " is one of our commonest birds. It makes a 

 loud and harsh croaking call. It is found both in the forest 

 and in the clearings, and especially frequents the asen trees 

 of old gardens to eat their fruit, driving away the little birds 

 and the Green Pigeons that always occur where ripe asen 

 fruit is to be found. I have never seen the Mba fly far. It 

 runs along the branches like a squirrel or a monkey, hopping 

 from one to another, and only using its wings where the 

 trees or branches are far apart. Then it flies with an easy 

 gliding motion, as if the force to carry it forward came from 

 the spring with which it left the branch, and not from its 

 wings. The flesh of the Mba is good eating. 



11. Heliobucco bonapartii (t. c. p. 617). 



This bird, the smallest of the " Ovols," is very frequently 

 seen. I have found several of its colonies in holes in dead 

 trees near villages. They bore from a dozen to fifty holes 

 in the trunk of a dead tree that is beginning to decay, and 

 seem to reside there permanently. Near the village on the 

 Ja River which I visited, stood the dead and half-rotten 

 trunk of an immense cotton-tree. It was perforated for 

 most of its length by the holes of these birds. When 

 the base of the tree was struck with a stick a crowd of them 

 flew out. Then when the trunk was hit harder, little bats 

 (a species of Nyctinomus) flew out of the same holes. That 

 the natives often find these bats and birds living together 

 in the same holes is shewn by a curious notion which they 



